Today marked the opening night of this year’s Christmas Town, but it also brought something else as well: A new opportunity to check in on how InvadR is progressing.
There will be plenty of formal Christmas Town content coming soon (in addition to ongoing Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram coverage), but tonight we’re going to focus on InvadR.
Typically this update wouldn’t make it online quite this quickly, but tonight my insomnia is proving to be a surprisingly potent motivator. Given the late hour, I hope you’ll forgive me if this post is a little slim on analysis and visual finesse.
Anyway, lets get right into it, shall we?
As the pictures below show, the pre-lift hasn’t seen substantial change since we looked at the site a few weeks ago.
That said, the there is something hiding on this section of the coaster. Looking through the first turn-around, we can get a glimpse of the start of InvadR’s lift hill.
The back half of the ride has more work to display to guests than the front half though. Crossing the New France/Rhinefield bridge offers a peek at a beautiful new airtime hill that runs parallel the railroad.
The base of the first drop is also visible from this angle. It doesn’t seem to have progressed much since earlier this month though. Shifting our lens a little to the left, we can see the turn out of the new airtime hill that will soon cross the railroad.
Overall, from in-park paths, a surprisingly small amount of vertical construction makes itself immediately obvious. The majority of the pictures above were taken with quite a long lens and many of them were cropped even beyond that point in order to highlight what’s new.
Since the Busch Gardens Railroad was closed today to accommodate ongoing InvadR construction, there are areas of the InvadR site that are even more difficult to see than the ones shown thus far. The most notable of these sections is the exit of the tunnel to the third crossing of the railroad.
This specific area of InvadR is located behind Le Scoot’s sawmill building and largely hidden by surrounding trees. That said, this is BGWFans—meaning we have pictures to share regardless.
Though it is hard to know this for sure without better angles, judging from the pictures above, this specific, illusive section of InvadR may very well be nearing completion at this point. Also, a small detail to note in the first shot: The exit to InvadR’s first tunnel can be spotted peeking above the soil.
On a different note, the second two pictures really suggest that the train will be carrying some serious speed through this area of the coaster. I feel as though every time a new section of InvadR goes vertical, I find myself far happier with the result than the plans, concept art, and animated POV had lead me to be previously. I mean, check out the transition in the bottom right picture. One word: “Wow.”
I’ll close out this InvadR construction update with a shot of the large log tower that makes up the right side of InvadR’s ride photo booth/gift shop. This is another element of this ride I’m quite happy with right now. The style blends beautifully with both the recently rebuilt New France restrooms and Caribou Train Station.
As always, stay tuned for more! BGWFans will be back at Busch Gardens Williamsburg later this weekend to do more coverage of both Christmas Town and InvadR. You can follow along with us on Facebook, Twitter, and most prominently recently, Instagram.